John D. Cooper, 45, will report Monday to the Tuscola County Jail to begin serving the sentence issued today by visiting Judge David C. Nicholson.

Cooper, 4185 Caine, also was ordered to pay a total of $6,552 in fines in connection with his guilty plea to the nine counts of illegally taking the deer. Nicholson granted work-release privileges to Cooper while he serves the sentence.

Cooper has denied shooting any of the animals. He faced a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail in connection with the nine misdemeanors.

Nicholson also placed Cooper on probation for 18 months and revoked his hunting privileges for the rest of this year and through 2014.

Michigan law requires hunters to affix a “kill tag” to a deer immediately after it is killed.

State Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Joshua D. Wright said he arrested Cooper after finding the nine untagged bucks and 22 firearms at Cooper’s address, located in a wooded area several miles outside the city of Vassar.

The Saginaw News could not reach Tuscola County prosecutors or Cooper’s lawyer, Caro attorney Robert A. Betts, for comment on the sentence.

A hearing was to occur this afternoon regarding the 22 firearms Cooper wants the government to return to him. The results of the hearing weren’t immediately available.

Betts asked in a court brief for the judge to immediately order the guns returned, or to order them returned if the government can’t establish a connection between the guns and the allegations against Cooper.

Betts has argued that officers seized every firearm or weapon they found at Cooper’s residence without regard for whether the guns were used to kill the nine bucks and without regard to who owned them.

Prosecutors have said they don’t plan to return the firearms.

Tuscola County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Eric F. Wanink wrote in a court brief that Cooper demonstrates a “callous disregard for the rules and laws that regulate the taking of wildlife in this state.”